Method of treating cottonseed in handling, cleaning, and delinting



Oct. 9 1923. 1,470,339

T. P. WALLACE METHOD OF TREATING COTTON SEED IN HANDLING, CLEANING, ANDDELINT'ING Filed Nov. 22. 1920 3 Sheets-Sheet l Get. 9 1923. 1,470,339

T. P. WALLACE METHOD OF TREATING COTTON SEED IN HANDLING, CLEANING, ANDDELINTING Filed Nov. 22, 1920 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 T. P. WALLACE METHOD OFTREATING COTTON SEED IN HANDLING, CLEANING, AND DELINTING Filed Nov. 22,1920 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 least, a disagreeable feature of the work;

Patented 0st. 9, 1923.,

in lion 7 enrich.

THOMAS P. WALLACE, 0F MEMPHIS," TENNESSEE.

METHOD ()1? TREATING COTTONSEED IN Application filed November T 0 allwhom it may (7012 cam Be it known that I, Trio s P. WALLAon, a citizenof the United States, and residing at Memphis, Shelby County, State ofTen nessee, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methodsof Treating Cot tonseed in Handling, Cleaning, and Delint in g, of whichthe following is a specification.

This invention relates to ,thetreatinent of cotton seed and consists ina method by which there is a very material saving of lint in handlingcottonseed and particularly in cleaning and delinting it, and in whichthe final lint when removed in the dclinting machine is cleaner, longer,more uniform vand more valuable than in processes heretofore used, andthe air surrounding the ma chines which perform theseoperations and inwhich the workmen must stay is much more pure and freefrom floatingmaterial.

and thus more comfortable as well more healthtlul. The invention isbased primarily on my discovery that the fine cotton fibre :lttlItCllMlto the seed when it becomesdry as it will necessarily do in time is in asense considerably more hard, brittle or breakable than when containingthe proper amount of moisture, and that the fibres are thus inclined tobreak usually between their ends when subjected tostrain such as bycontact with other things in handling, conveying,

cleaning or delinting, with the result that the fine broken particles oflint will be car-j ried away in the air and will thus not only be lostfor useful purposes but will co-n taminate the atmosphere where theworkers are compelled to be. lint in the atmosphere of rooms andbuildings where cotton seedis handled, cleaned and delinted has longbeen recognized as at aside tromthe loss of the lint. l have discoveredthat these troubles and difiiculties can be avoided ii the lint or fibreon the seed.- is brought to contain the right degree of moisture sinceit then becomes very pliable and no longer brittle and its strength andability to stand the strain of contact and those incidcntvtoithe removalof dirt and dust without breaking or pulling loose from the seed aregreatly increased. 1 find that when properly moistened particles thelint will not break off and be lost, containinating the air, and thatthe cleaning can be done more thoroughly and completely, thus making" acleaner lint.

This presence of fine Another ad- HANDLING, CLEANING, AND DELINTING.

'22, 1920. Serial No. 425,760.

vantage in the delinting operation is that,

the lint is not only all there on the seed and much clcanen'but theaction of the saw teeth in the delinting machines is to loosen and breakaway the fibre directly at the seed instead of breaking or cuttingitmidway of: its length, and thus each fibre having its full length issecured and the body of lint produced is much more uniform and valuable.This regulation of the moisture will furthermore make it possible to geta more uniform product of lint from different machines locatediinnormally different at mospheric conditions, and also from the somemachines under different conditions of the weather, whether dry orrainy. For purposes oi: illustration I have shown one specificarrangement of apparatus carrying out certain operations in which myprocess used, but it will of course be understood that the processisiapplicable to. the treatwent 0" where the objectionable featuresabove noted were "Formerly present. Furthermore, while l have referredto cottonseed containing short fibre, my process may in some respects beapplicable to cotton seed hulls containing some remaining short fibresor even to seed containing longer fibres of cotton than usual withginned seed.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a vertical section through a ,L well known formof seedcleaning mech anism, embodying means for moistening the Yi hile one ol-the main features of my inrention is to properly moistento the rightdegree the lint'fibre on the seed, and while in the broader aspects ofthe invention this I prefer to produce this moisture in the airsurrounchng the seed whereby thefibres will upon sui'licientcxposureahsorb the moisture,

1 the scedin any form oi apparatus i may. be accomplished ljiyanysuitable means,

of moisture will serve best with mostodry seed. It will be understoodhowever, that the percentage of moisture will vary according to theconditionof tlIG'SGGCl andin those cases where the seed are what may becalled green and the fibre contains some'nati ralmoisture a less degreeof moisture will be necessary in the surrounding air. \Vhile themoisture may be imparted to the air surrounding the seed'in any way, Iprefer to have properly regulated spray nozzles for the moisture whichmay be operated by steam or air pressure discharging the water intheioriii of vapor. I p 7 In Figure 1 an elevator 10 of wellknown typeraises the seed from a receptacle 11 to which they have been suppliedfrom the seed storage room. to an elevated discharge receptacle 12 fromwhich they passby the spout 13'iiito the end of the rotating perforateddriin lacalled in commercial practise a sand reel. The perforations inthis cylinder are of such size as to permit sand and small particles ofdirt to pass through falling on the inclined side plates 15 and movingdown into the conveyor trough 16, from which a screwconveyor 17discharges them out throiigh'a spout 18. Theperforai of the sore tionsare too small to permit the passage of seed and since the cylinder isinclined the seed pass down to the funnel conveyor '19 and at its lowerend enter the perforated cylinder 20 which in commercial practise peller24' until they reach the opening25 in the bottom of the conveyor, andpassed down through the seed feeder 26 to the upper surface of theinclined'wire screen 27 which sustains the seed without, allowiiig themto pass through, and under shaking movement and gravity they pass downto and intothe seed." cleaner 28"shown-in' Figure 2. This seed cleaneroperates by vacuum action to separate the seed from pa'rticlesof metalor stone'whichgare heavier," lifting the seed from the wire net screen:and carrying themover an d '-(l6POS1 iJ11T,L"i-lleln in *the' seed fcon'vey'or avhile allowingthe metal and other heav particles to fall fromthe end pinto the conveyor 30; The air of ms thesee'd cleaner belowrthewire course ent screen-27 and passes up through it andisf dischargedfrom the 201831181 throiigl'i the outlet, pipe 47 carrying ivlth it anydust or fine material which may be drawn up with it. Itis not believednecessary to give any more, detailed description of this seed cleaningmechanism since ita-is in well known commercial use and willbeunderstood by those skilled in the art. In adapting'this machine tocarry out my process Iprovidey the necessary steam and water pipes, forinstance 31 and 32, arranged in series and connected at points toprovide discharge noz zles as shown particularly in Figure 2. Itwill-be' seen from this figure that the moisture' is discharged adjacentto two perforat ed rollers 14 and 20 and above the plates 15 r I and 21,ai1d that there are vapor pipes 32 over the screen 27 to maintain themoisture of thefibre' 1 r In Figure '3 i have shown diagrammatically aseed storage room 33, having an inlet hopper '34: for the seed conveyor35 operated in any suitable and well "known way to supply seed to'thereceptacle 11 at the bottom of the elevator 10, and steam and watersupply pipes 36'and 37 with vapor discharge nozzles are placed in theseed storage room to properly moisten the air and thelinton the seed asthey are handled and before they enter the conveyor. The seed cleaningmechanism shown in" Figure 3 into which the elevator 10' discharges andthe arrangement of vapor (lischargeoutlets thereincor'respond to what isshown more in detail in F gures 1 and 2. The conveyor 29 into which theseed fall from the seed cleaner 28 carries the seed to an elevator 38in't-he room where the seed are to be de lin'ted andthe necessary pipes39 andvapor spray nozzles 40" are placed along and above this conveyor.The elevator 38 deposits the" seed in the receptacle 41 from which theypass 'downf through the spout 42 and enter the delinting machine 43,which is of well knoivn construction which will be understood fully bythose skilled in the art with outde'scrip'tion. As is well understood inthe art, the lint taken from the seed in this delinter passes to therotating perforated drum 44 where it is collected and pressed intosheets; The necessaryair, steam and water pipesfor the vapordischargejnear the delinting 'machiine to maintain the atmosphere ofth'eroom at the proper mois- 131116 may be arranged in any suitable way toproperly distribute the moisture in the .ing it. all cases l prefer toso distribute theunOis'ture as to make it substantially eventhroiighoiitthe various rooms so as to secure uniformity in the lint product "andalso to prevent contamination of tlie-atinos" phere in the rooins and tothus contribute to the he'altliof the employees After leaving Liv thedelinting machine the seed usually gov to the rooms Where the hullersand shakers are located which cut open the hulls and remove the-meatsfrom the seed and it is of considerable advantage to extend theoperation of my process tothose rooms, preventing anyreinaining finelint and dust from contaminating the air.

Having thus described the inventiomwhat is now claimed as new anddesired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. The method of treating and cleaning cotton. seed having fibercontaining less than the desired degree of moisture which consists inproducing and maintaining a sufficient degree of moisture for suflicienttime in the atmosphere surrounding the seed to impart to the cottonfibers thereof. the desired degree of moisture to soften or rendcr saidfibers more pliable and stronger and subjecting the seed to the cleaningoperation in such condition, thus securing more effective removal andcollection. of dust and v other foreign matter and reducing greatly thebreakage of the short lint into minute particles Which float around inand con taminate the surrounding air.

2. The method of treating cotton seed to save fiber and to avoidcontaminating the atmosphere in the operations of cleaning seed byremoval of dust and other foreign matter and in delinting the seed whichconsists in producing and maintaining a degree of moisture in theatmosphere around the seed during those operations so regulated inaccordance with the moisture content or" the fiber on the seed beingtreated as to impart to it and maintain in it that degree of moisturewhich will give it the desired flexibility and strength best adapted toprevent breakage of the short fibres into minute particles which wouldfloat around and contaminate the air.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signa ture.

THOMAS P. WALLACE.

